Writing Tips from Joe Perrone, Jr.

Inspiration – I find ideas everywhere there are news articles, books, movies, real-life situations.  Sometimes I’ll be reading a non-fiction book, and something in it will give me a direction for one of my books.  This is where I got the idea for Twice Bitten.  Another “germ” came to me when I was mowing my lawn, and resulted in the genesis for Changes, a literary novel that I am working on, periodically.  Naturally, real life experiences help me to flesh out events and characters.  Inspiration?  It’s all around you!  Use it.

Routine – My routine has evolved over many, many years.  Once I have a “germ” of an idea, I begin roughing it out in an outline.  Then, I decide what characters I’ll need to tell my story.  I like to do a little “bio” for each character, which includes age, height, weight, interests, hair color, eyes, etc.  I save these for reference as I proceed with my writing.  Each day, when I’m moved to write, I first go over what I’ve written in my previous session, and make editing, proofing changes as needed.  I don’t write a single new word until I have done this.  I find this has all but eliminated “typos” and editing errors.